Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei was a two-time winner at the US Open on Thursday, while Chuang Chia-jung made it a clean sweep for Taiwanese competing in Flushing Meadows, New York.
Hsieh made two visits to Court 12 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, first alongside Anastasia Rodionova in the first round of the women’s doubles.
The 10th seeds needed just 52 minutes to dispatch Eva Hrdinova of the Czech Republic and Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia 6-2, 6-3, as the Taiwanese-Australian duo converted four of nine break points, while their opponents failed to create a single break-point opportunity.
Photo: AFP
Hsieh and Rodionova won 62 of the 99 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and CoCo Vandeweghe of the US, who defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia and Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-3, 6-4.
Hsieh then returned in the first round of the mixed doubles as the Taiwanese and Henri Kontinen survived a second-set wobble to defeat US duo Lauren Davis and Eric Butorac 6-4, 6-7 (2/7), 10-5 in 1 hour, 24 minutes.
The Taiwanese-Finnish pairing saved one of three break points and converted three of six, winning 81 of the 145 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with US duo Sachia Vickery and Frances Tiafoe, who came from behind to edge Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain and Robert Lindstedt of Sweden 5-7, 6-3, 10-8.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
On Court 10, Chuang and Timea Bacsinszky took 1 hour, 30 minutes to oust US pairing Melanie Oudin and Jessica Pegula 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) in their women’s doubles first-round clash.
The Taiwanese-Swiss duo saved three of five break points and converted three of six, winning 74 of the 139 points contested to advance to a second-round showdown with top seeds Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Sania Mirza of India, who cruised past US pairing Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria 6-1, 6-2 in just 56 minutes.
In the singles, five-time champion Roger Federer strolled into the third round as fellow old-timer Lleyton Hewitt bid farewell in trademark fighting style.
On a dramatic day which saw a record created for the longest women’s match and a new Grand Slam high for retirements from the men’s tournament, Andy Murray escaped his earliest exit in 10 years when he came back from two sets down to make the round-of-32.
There was also a late security scare when a drone crashed into the corner of Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Then, after midnight, 2009 and 2014 runner-up Caroline Wozniacki, the fourth seed, was knocked out by Czech world No. 149 Petra Cetkovska, who saved four match points to win 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7/1).
Cetkovska, who recently missed seven months of action with a hip injury, committed 60 unforced errors, but unleashed 60 winners.
World No. 2 Federer, the 17-time Grand Slam champion, needed just 1 hour, 20 minutes to rout Belgium’s Steve Darcis 6-1, 6-2, 6-1.
The 34-year-old Swiss star, who was champion from 2004 to 2008 and runner-up in 2009, next faces German 29th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Federer has lost just nine games in the first two rounds, his fewest in 16 appearances.
“Very often I started this tournament quite strong. It’s always gone quite well for me,” Federer said. “I’ve always enjoyed conditions here — the balls, the speed of the court, the atmosphere in the arena. It’s always worked very well for me.”
Darcis later tweeted that playing Federer was like facing “a Martian.”
Third seed and 2012 champion Murray came back from two sets down to defeat tiring Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 5-7, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Murray next faces Brazilian 30th seed Thomaz Bellucci for a place in the round-of-16.
Murray, 28, who had needed four sets to beat Nick Kyrgios in the opening round, fired 21 aces, while Mannarino was undone by 61 unforced errors.
Former world No.1 Hewitt, the champion in 2001, made a dramatic farewell, battling from two sets down and having two match points before losing to fellow Australian Bernard Tomic on a rocking Grandstand court.
In his final match in New York, the 34-year-old fell 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5 after 3 hours, 27 minutes in his 57th career five-set match.
Hewitt plans to retire after January’s Australian Open.
“I would have liked to have been able to enjoy it a bit more, but obviously when it’s so tight, especially in the fifth set, you’re just trying to find a way to obviously get across the line,” said Hewitt, who was described as a “legend” by Tomic.
Jack Sock of the US and Denis Istomin retired from their matches as they wilted in the 33?C heat.
Twelve men — a record at Grand Slams — as well as two women quit matches in the first four days.
The 22-year-old Sock was leading Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 1-2 when he started cramping and was forced to retire.
Sock, the 28th seed, collapsed on the court, where he was treated with ice packs by US Open medical staff before being helped off to the shade of the Grandstand.
Bemelmans next plays fifth-seeded French Open champion Stan Wawrinka, who beat South Korean teenager Chung Hyeon 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (8/6).
Istomin called it quits on Court 7 against Austrian 20th seed Dominic Thiem, who was 6-4, 6-4, 1-0 up at the time, with his win coming on his 22nd birthday.
The carnage led again to suggestions that the men, who play the best of five sets, should be accorded the same heat protection as women players.
The WTA allows a 10-minute break between the second and third sets of women’s matches when the mercury bursts through 30.1?C.
“When it’s extremely hot and humid, it helps to have that break,” Murray said. “You get the chance to sort of go off and change, get under a cold shower if you want to.”
New York police were investigating the drone which crashed, causing Flavia Pennetta’s victory over Monica Niculescu to be held up.
“I feared the drone was a bomb,” Pennetta, who next faces Cetkovska, told the tennisworlditalia Web site.
British world No. 97 Johanna Konta made history when she defeated Wimbledon runner-up Garbine Muguruza in the longest women’s match in US Open history.
Konta won 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 in 3 hours, 23 minutes, beating by seven minutes the previous longest match played in 2011 when Samantha Stosur defeated Nadia Petrova.
The defeats for Muguruza and Wozniacki left just three of the top 10 women left in the tournament — Serena Williams, Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova.
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